Nintendo's Sponsored Tweet Fail

Nintendo has spawned a Twitter backlash today with a sponsored tweet to promote the new Kid Icarus game.

The hashtag #aNewNintendoHeroRises designed to promote the new game has backfired, as gamers claim the Nintendo "hero" character is in fact old, not new.

Gamers have co-opted the hashtag to write "#aNewNintendoHeroRises is a stupid. Pit is 25 years old", "didn't know that the 80s is now considered new." and "People who know anything about videogames will know exactly what's wrong with the topic #aNewNintendoHeroRises".

Pit is the lead character in the game Kid Icarus, released today on Nintendo 3DS. The first Kid Icarus game was published in in December 1986.

Sponsored hashtags have famously gone wrong for brands. The promotional hashtag #McDstories, launched by McDonalds as part of a campaign calling for wholesome, heart-warming tales of McDonalds love, backfired magnificently when tweeters used it to share their poor experiences of McDonalds.